Kazamatsuri.org Podcast Ep. 1: Planetarian Bookclub

Itā€™s the definitive planetarian companion.

We need a planetarian mod for it. Chibi Yumemis everywhere.

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Amazing podcast guys! I can tell they will get even better as the bookclubs continue. :smile:

Also, I am honored to be chosen as the MVP. It was really fun just to get my thoughts out there and also hear what you guys thought! I guess I just realized that this is really the only Key VN Iā€™ve actually finished so far (yikes!) so I really enjoyed just talking about it.

I wouldnā€™t consider any of you guys radio personality material, but its pretty solid for a first time thing. Also, @Aspirety, you say ā€œummā€ a lot. like a lot a lotā€¦

3 hours is so looonnngg though, but I guess there is quite a bit to coverā€¦ maybe consider doing a series of short (20-30 min) podcasts each with a different theme for next time? I feel like that would make it a little more accessible to some of the less ā€œdie hardā€ fans.

A big part of this is certainly the fact that weā€™re doing the entirety of planetarian, as opposed to just common and one route at a time, which is the goal for the future bookclubs. planetarian is really stuffed with things to talk about, where as thereā€™s a bit more filler material within a normal VN route/common. Itā€™ll also be smoother as we become more accustomed to it, of course.

Whelp. Only way to get better is by doing it, yeah? Even radio personalities gotta start somewhere.

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Planetarian is smaller than the average common/character route though, haha. I see how the fact that Planeterian is so unique makes it take a lot of time to explain it though.

For a more standard VN I still think it might be better to try and split it into shorter segments than just one for every route; maybe like 2-3 per route with one general coverage, one specifically for character interactions, and maybe a third for how it all ties into the main story. Having multiple sections would help keep the thoughts more concise and even if you cover the exact same topics it would, at the least, make it easier for people to find the parts theyā€™re most interested in, instead of having to skip around if they only want to hear one part.

+1 for the positive attitude

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I only listen to/watch a few other podcasts, but they all aim to finish at 2 1/2 hours - 3 hours long. Not sure if itā€™s staple or just a coincidenceā€¦

IIRC when the switch to planetarian was first made, Aspi said something like it might end up longer than future releases due toā€¦ well, covering a whole VN in one episode.

Time needed to be taken to explain why/how itā€™s different, and to relate it to the time of release (just after Clannad) as well as the bit-by-bit coverage probably being more in-depth since they had less content to go through. I think thereā€™s more to say about Planetarian for the second half of the show than any individual common/character route in a Key VN, aside from maybe the more complex Litbus and Rewrite routes. (Speaking of which, itā€™ll be interesting to see when they decide to do Yuikoā€™s route in relation to the rest of Litbus EXā€¦ which Iā€™m assuming will the version that everyone has read by then.)

Judging from the format of this episode, there will be coverage of the main plot points of the route, then a discussion about the material in the story, and opinions on the soundtrack/art/format of the VN. (This is more of a review type thing.) Then a discussion about the possible interpretations of what the story aimed to tell, and finishing off with opinions on the route/VN as a whole. (Deeper stuff than just a review.) Recorded messages played when they are most appropriateā€¦ or something like that~

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It was fun! Even if we had to do it twice, I had a blast both times. I feel like I have a lot of trouble inserting myself into a conversation when everyone else is talking, so thatā€™s something Iā€™m not sure how best to work on.

I really wanted to say this- Bra-freakin-vo to @rune_devros for joining us. He proved to be invaluable to this- The knowledge he brought was something nobody else would have been able to provide and heā€™s my personal MVP for the bookclub because of that. Great show, man. You really are someone I admire due to your passion. I gotta get that book lol

Iā€™m really happy I got to contribute a perspective to the podcast. Science and space is a thing that I have a passion for, so I was glad to have an avenue to share it.

For future podcasts, I agree that we could split it up so that itā€™s more digestable. Planetarian is hard to skip over parts because it is so short and each moment is filled with meaning. I know based on my playthroughs of Rewrite and LB! that there would be major highlights in routes and some big chunks we can skip over.

Ah, thatā€™s another thing! Good work calling out people to speak @Aspirety. Iā€™m not sure if you all shared notes and ideas before the podcast, or if it was just because you recorded it before, but segueing into a topic where you can safely call out another person to lead the discussion was great. It felt really comfortable (as a listener at least) so I think you should work on keeping that going in future.

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Is there an RSS feed for this? I want to get this on my iPhone.

Ahahaha, yes, I definitely noticed that while listening to myself. Something I gotta work on I guess.

That doesnā€™t really work for our format. I didnā€™t expect it to hit 3 hours, but there was so much to talk about! I hope to aim for 2 hour length for future podcasts. Any less than that and we wouldnā€™t be able to go in depth enough! Keep in mind that this isnā€™t a rehearsed thing - itā€™s a discussion, a bookclub. We need to take the time to explore all that back and forth of our different ideas.

But if you pay attention, youā€™ll notice that this episode was actually split into 4 parts. Nobody has any obligation to listen to it all in one go, people are welcome to stop at the breaks, grab a coffee or even come back another day to listen to the rest. This is the experience Iā€™ve had with most podcasts I listen to. Maybe we couldā€™ve done more to make the breaks stand out more.

No there isnā€™t, but now Iā€™m curious. Why do you need an RSS feed? You can always download the MP3 from the soundcloud page.

Gonna be typing my reaction to the podcast as I listen to it, so apologies if it is a bit messy :wink: Just a note, I listened to the soundcloud version, so I canā€™t comment on the video. Sorry about that!

@LinkThinks Iā€™ll be waiting for your speedrun guide :v So is it faster in Japanese or English? Hahaha

I love how you have the background music at special times to make you remember certain scenes in the game. Makes me realize that having planetarian having such little BGMs makes all of them a little more memorable.

Hmm I donā€™t remember about the old guy in planetarian mentioning that there was a robot specifically in that city, but I did remember that the junker talked about his colleague who warned him not to talk about a robot who was basically out of this world. But thatā€™s just my memory failing me again. So on that point, I think it might have been any robot, even if it wasnā€™t Yumemi. The otherworldly robot doesnā€™t have to be broken like yumemi, because the mindset of any robot would be totally different from the mindset of the junkers of that day and age. So probably any interaction with any robot would have been pretty traumatic for anyone during that humanity.

I quite loved that thing with her ribbons, and I believe it was one of the first things I noticed when I first played it 6 years ago. I guess itā€™s one of those things that add to her characterizations. On a technical side, I try to imagine what exactly the programmers try to look for when they make code to change those colors.

I think the part about ā€œmankind remembering the beauty of the night skyā€ just has so much meaning to the junker. While it was meant for people who are leaving the earth, the junker himself feels so hit by it exactly because he canā€™t see the stars.

Oh I think one thing you guys forgot to mention with the fiddler crab is that the power shutting off is what actually caused the fiddler crab to turn on. So itā€™s ironic that watching the presentation caused the junker to feel more for yumemi, which caused the power to turn off, which caused the fiddler crab to block their way. Hypothetically, if he decided to bring yumemi home without watching the presentation, he would have had practically no problem. Well, such is the beauty of storytelling and the consequence upon consequence that leads to the climax~

Kind of annoying that you played the droning sound for quite a long time >_< A few seconds would have been enough, tbh. Though I did like the syncing of the shots with the discussion.

Regarding the ā€œhonorā€ of doing what you are told to do, I think that goes in with the ā€œhumanityā€ of Yumemi and the lack thereof of the Junker. The Junker seemingly does not know what his purpose is, and I feel if, he had never met Yumemi, he would have died without ever feeling ā€œhonorā€ at all.

Itā€™s surprising how just listening to you guys talking about it, especially that ending, is starting to bring tears to my eyes. I think this might have even more impact than just reading it by myself. Yeah now I really have to find the time to listen to all the rest of the drama CDs >_<

Oh hey I suddenly realized something! Maybe the reason why Yumemi stated that there hasnā€™t been any customers in 29 years is because even though the ā€œold junkerā€ met and talked with Yumemi, he most likely did not watch the presentation and, thus, Yumemi may have not even considered that old junker a customer? Just a random thought

@rune_devrosā€™s talk about space quite reminds me of the ā€œHappy Thoughtsā€ in Rewrite. I wonā€™t go into that here, as thereā€™s a whole different topic for that. Actually that whole thing about ā€œresolving our problemsā€ does tie into Rewrite in one way or another.

(I wonder if kanon and rabla listened to that 5 second soundclip lol)

Ohhhhh hey Aspi thought the same thing I was thinking regarding Rewrite! (not gonna delete my previous paragraph :P)
And you just said ā€œRewriteā€ instead of ā€œplanetarianā€ in ā€œI feel that this whole point of Rewrite is the feeling of congruity in what we see and what is realityā€

Regarding the ā€œthis is not a bad place to die,ā€ I donā€™t think that means that he is suicidal or has lost hope in life and the world (assuming there was any hope to begin with). Perhaps it is a simple note that the whole world is ugly and, when we dies, we would like to do so somewhere more peaceful. Everywhere else to die would be like you being another part of the world where everything dies, whereas dying in the planetarium is like dying in a sanctuary, where it is peaceful. Practically what I mean to say is, if he dies in a sanctuary, he will feel as if he had a peaceful death. Whereas if he died outside, he would be just another one of the ever decreasing population.

Anyways final notes, I do agree that you did a great job with the bookclub :slight_smile: I will be honest that listening to you guys discuss it had a little bit more impact on me than just reading it by myself. Congratulations on the good work, guys, and I look forward to the next one :smile:

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One thing Iā€™ve seen a lot of podcasts do is that they talk for a really, really long time, but clearly segmented in a way they can put an index on. So if youā€™re looking for something specific, you can check the index and jump straight to a timestamp to hear only that part. Or if you donā€™t want to get spoiled for a particular route (say, Sayaā€™s in LB!), you can skip that part and still enjoy the rest, then go back when youā€™ve played it.

And, if this becomes a regular thing, I can definitey get something up that you can subscribe to from iTunes or whatever. The technical side of a podcast is incredibly simple, and we basically have unlimited storage + bandwidth thanks to S3. You could even get it up on the iTunes Storeā€™s catalog, if you have time to email Apple about it!

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You gotta remeber, though, that Yumemi counted the junker as a customer before he had watched the presentation. Heck, itā€™s like the first thing she says. Not tryinā€™ to argue, just wanted point that out.

Edit: Oh, and thanks a lot for your kind words, haha. Itā€™s reassuring to know that people enjoyed it.

Just finished listening to it. Seriously, great job guys! I especially loved the reflection at around 2h30m. I now feel like buying some more copies of Planetarian to distribute to my friends.

This was pretty awesome. Looking forward to more podcasts in the future.

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Maybe she would have cancelled his being a customer status if he decided not to watch? Who knows what she is thinking tho haha

Share the stars with the world to make it a better place~ <3

Eh, itā€™s possible, but I feel itā€™s very unlikely. I think itā€™d go against Yumemiā€™s personality to not count him if he did visit. Odds are itā€™s simply a different robot. Either way, though, it doesnā€™t really change anything.

We share a lot of same thought on planetarian and other Key works. Thats why we all love Key! GJ dudes!

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Iā€™m not sure why I never replied to this topic but I have to say that this podcast is very important to me. This was what really got me get an account on kaza. The amount of analysis for Planetarian really opened up a new world for me. When I first read it I was like, well this is only my second key vn, I canā€™t expect them to all be super awesome right? But when I listened to the podcast it blew me away. The sheer amount of things I missed the first time around made a huge difference. The biggest factor being the analysis of the parallel between Planetarian and the Bible. Because I am a Christian, this fit so well in my mind and really inspired me and made Planetarian my favorite story of all timeā€¦ until of course Harmonia but hey I still love Planetarian.

Overall I have to say, thank you so very much for having this podcast. Without it, I wouldnā€™t be the Key fan I am today.

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